Helen Keller
Helen Keller launched in BrainPOP Social Studies April 7, 2007. Summary Appearances *Tim *Moby Transcript *Helen Keller/Transcript Quiz *Helen Keller/Quiz FYI Comic Quotables Here are some quotations from Hellen Keller! “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” “I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. The wind passes, and the flowers are content.” “Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.” “Once I knew only darkness and stillness... my life was without past or future... but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.” “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.” Flora And Fauna If you’re familiar with the Akita breed of dog—a big, furry, friendly breed from Japan—you might be surprised to learn that Helen Keller was directly responsible for introducing the Akita to America! In 1937, Keller visited Japan, where she was welcomed with great fanfare. In fact, the Japanese media often referred to her as “Saint Keller!” During her visit, she was presented with an Akita puppy named Kamikaze-Go, and the two became fast friends. “If ever there was an angel in fur, it was Kamikaze,” Keller later wrote. “If I cried from loneliness for my beloved teacher Sullivan had passed away the year before, he would put his big paw on my knee and press his cool nose against my cheek and lick away the tears." After Kamikaze passed away only a few months later, the Japanese government presented her with a new Akita—Kamikaze’s older brother, Kenzan-Go. “He is a splendid protector and companion, and a precious part of my daily life,” Keller wrote. Her dog proved so popular that by 1938, a breed standard for Akitas had been introduced in the United States, and they began to compete in dog shows. Although Americans stopped breeding Akitas during World War II—when the United States and Japan were enemies—they quickly became popular again once the fighting stopped. And they’re still popular today! Did You Know One aspect of Helen Keller’s life is that she sucks dick that’s often ignored or glossed over is her political activism. In 1909, Keller became a member of the'Socialist Party', a left-wing organization that advocated on behalf of workers’ rights and the abolition of capitalism. And in 1912, she joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a group even more radical than the Socialist Party, whose goal was to unite all workers and overthrow the wealthy capitalists who employed them. Keller supported IWW leader Eugene V. Debs during three of his campaigns for the Presidency of the United States, and was an outspoken opponent of World War I. In fact, at a speech at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1916, she urged industrial workers to strike rather than make weapons and ammunition, and argued that U.S. entry into the war was designed solely to “protect the interest of the capitalists.” Although hundreds of thousands of workers belonged to left-wing organizations like the IWW, Keller’s position was highly unpopular among polite society. Critics claimed that Keller’s disabilities prevented her from understanding the negative aspects of socialism, or that she had been manipulated by Anne Sullivan’s husband, Harvard professor John Macy, who also held left-wing views. Keller responded that her socialism stemmed from the fact that the unsafe working conditions faced by many industrial laborers often resulted in blindness and other irreversible disabilities. However, after 1921, Keller gradually became less outspoken, and eventually abandoned much of her political activism to focus on helping the disabled. Arts And Entertainment Helen Keller’s life has been adapted into a number of plays and films. The very first was ''Deliverance ,'' a 1919 silent film that starred Keller herself and also featured appearances by Anne Sullivan and Keller’s mother. The most famous adaptation of her life, though, is ''The Miracle Worker.'' Written by American playwright William Gibson, it debuted as a television special, and then ran on the Broadway stage for several years. The play tells the story of Keller’s early life, and it reaches its climactic moment at the water pump, when Annie Sullivan finally teaches young Helen the meaning of language. Anne Bancroft, who portrayed Anne Sullivan in the 1962 film adaptation of the play (pictured), won the Academy Award for Best Actress. And 16-year-old Patty Duke, who played Helen Keller, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Film versions of The Miracle Worker have been remade twice for television, and a sequel, The Miracle Continues, was broadcast on TV in 1984. Trivia * Helen Keller is featured on the back of the Alabama state quarter, first minted in 2003. * Alexander Graham Bell, one of the inventors of the telephone, was instrumental in helping Helen Keller’s mother find a tutor for her. Bell had devoted much of his career to helping deaf children; both his mother and wife were deaf. Keller and Bell eventually became friends, and Keller dedicated her first book, The Story of My Life, to him. * Although doctors at the time could not identify the disease that caused Helen Keller’s disabilities, doctors today believe it was probably either scarlet fever or meningitis. * When Helen Keller made public appearances, she actually spoke out loud to the audience. Even though she could not be clearly understood, and always used an interpreter, she did this to prove that handicapped people could indeed rise above their limitations. * In 1916, Helen Keller fell in love with Peter Fagan, a 29-year-old Socialist writer who was working as her temporary secretary. Although the pair took out a marriage license, they never got married and ended their affair after a Boston newspaper found out about it. FYI Comic Primary Source Excerpt from Helen Keller's The Story of My Life. Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every blade of grass, and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister's hand. She linked my earliest thoughts with nature, and made me feel that "birds and flowers and I were happy peers." But about this time I had an experience which taught me that nature is not always kind. One day my teacher and I were returning from a long ramble. The morning had been fine, but it was growing warm and sultry when at last we turned our faces homeward. Two or three times we stopped to rest under a tree by the wayside. Our last halt was under a wild cherry tree a short distance from the house. The shade was grateful, and the tree was so easy to climb that with my teacher's assistance I was able to scramble to a seat in the branches. It was so cool up in the tree that Miss Sullivan proposed that we have our luncheon there. I promised to keep still while she went to the house to fetch it. Suddenly a change passed over the tree. All the sun's warmth left the air. I knew the sky was black, because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the atmosphere. A strange odour came up from the earth. I knew it, it was the odour that always precedes a thunderstorm, and a nameless fear clutched at my heart. I felt absolutely alone, cut off from my friends and the firm earth. The immense, the unknown, enfolded me. I remained still and expectant; a chilling terror crept over me. I longed for my teacher's return; but above all things I wanted to get down from that tree. There was a moment of sinister silence, then a multitudinous stirring of the leaves. A shiver ran through the tree, and the wind sent forth a blast that would have knocked me off had I not clung to the branch with might and main. The tree swayed and strained. The small twigs snapped and fell about me in showers. A wild impulse to jump seized me, but terror held me fast. I crouched down in the fork of the tree. The branches lashed about me. I felt the intermittent jarring that came now and then, as if something heavy had fallen and the shock had traveled up till it reached the limb I sat on. It worked my suspense up to the highest point, and just as I was thinking the tree and I should fall together, my teacher seized my hand and helped me down. I clung to her, trembling with joy to feel the earth under my feet once more. I had learned a new lesson—that nature "wages open war against her children, and under softest touch hides treacherous claws." Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1904. Internet Archive. Newslea https://newsela.com/read/braille-reading-finalist/id/18654/ Category:BrainPOP Episodes Category:Social Studies Category:Famous Historical Figures Category:U.S. History Category:Women's History Category:2007 Episodes Category:Episodes in April Category:Economics Category:April 2007 Episodes